Extended Needs

Cooperation can be structurally sufficient and still feel brittle, unfair, or exhausting.

The Core Model defines the minimum cooperative needs required for work to function (Level 2 of the Pyramid):
Shared Understanding, Mutual Commitment, Feedback Loops, Distribution of Roles, Autonomy & Agency.

Extended Needs describe the deeper human and systemic requirements that influence:

• how cooperation is experienced,
• how motivation is sustained, and
• how resilient the system is under stress.

These needs are not part of the minimal HCS Matrix.
Cooperation can function without them, but it will often feel strained, transactional, or fragile.

Extended Needs are:

• classified as Collective or Individual, and
• organized into five functional categories.

Each need can be examined through potential political and psychological impact vectors to understand how it becomes distorted under tension.

Extended Needs complement the Extended Conditions by focusing on what people and groups seek, not just what context they inhabit.

Core vs Extended Needs

It is important to distinguish:

• Core cooperative needs (Level 2 of the Pyramid)
  • Shared Understanding
  • Mutual Commitment
  • Feedback Loops
  • Distribution of Roles
  • Autonomy & Agency

These are the minimal human requirements for cooperation to function at all.

• Extended Needs (this section)
  • Purpose & Direction
  • Trust & Safety
  • Growth & Evolution
  • Recognition & Belonging
  • Autonomy & Coherence

These are deeper motivational needs that shape the quality and emotional tone of cooperation.

Core Needs answer:

“Do people have enough to participate in cooperation sustainably?”

Extended Needs answer:

“Does this cooperation feel meaningful, fair, and worth sustaining over time?”

Both are real. Only the first group is encoded in the Core Model.

Collective vs Individual Needs

Extended Needs arise at two connected levels.

Collective Needs

Shared meaning, fairness, legitimacy, and identity.
These shape how groups hold purpose together and maintain cohesion during change.

Individual Needs

Personal motivation, recognition, autonomy, and emotional safety.
These shape how each person engages with cooperation and interprets their role in it.

Diagnostic Check:

• Is the complaint about "Us" (we are lost, we are unsafe) or "Me" (I am stuck, I am undervalued)?
• Intervention Rule: Do not use individual coaching to fix a collective crisis of purpose. Do not use a team workshop to fix one person's lack of growth.

Both levels interact continuously:

• When collective needs weaken, individuals disengage or protect themselves.
• When individual needs are chronically unmet, collective dynamics destabilize.

Types of Extended Needs

Extended Needs fall into five categories that influence motivation, coherence, and resilience within cooperative systems.

1. Purpose & Direction

Needs related to meaning, intention, and contribution.

Collective Needs

• Shared sense of purpose
• Legitimacy of direction and goals
• Relevance of the work to a broader context
• Identity as a group with a coherent mission

Individual Needs

• Personal meaning in the work
• Sense of contribution to something valuable
• Alignment between values and daily actions
• Clarity about “why my role matters”

Diagnostic Signals (What you hear):

• The "Cog" Signal: "I just build the widgets; I have no idea who uses them."
• The "Nihilist" Signal: "We're just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."

Impact on Core Model:

• Unmet Purpose needs erode Level 1 Common Purpose.
• Without meaning, Level 2 Mutual Commitment becomes purely transactional ("work to rule").

2. Trust & Safety

Needs related to vulnerability, honesty, and perceived security.

Collective Needs

• Systemic fairness (rules apply consistently)
• Transparent communication about risks and constraints
• Predictable commitments and follow-through
• Safety in raising issues or challenging assumptions

Individual Needs

• Psychological safety in conversations and decisions
• Confidence that honesty does not result in punishment
• Predictability in key relationships
• Emotional security when facing uncertainty or change

Diagnostic Signals (What you hear):

• The "Silence" Signal: A room full of experts, but nobody asks questions during the presentation.
• The "CYA" Signal: People CC their boss on every email to prove they aren't to blame.

Impact on Core Model:

• Low Safety blocks Level 2 Feedback Loops (people stop reporting truth).
• Low Trust forces the system into Encapsulation (silos) to avoid risk.

3. Growth & Evolution

Needs related to improvement, mastery, and progression.

Collective Needs

• Shared learning rhythms (retrospectives, reviews, open dialogue)
• Integration of insights into future work, not just storing them
• Collective progression toward greater mastery
• Capacity to adapt without losing coherence or identity

Individual Needs

• Skill development and increasing mastery
• Constructive feedback and support
• Opportunities for growth or new challenges
• A sense of becoming “better over time”

Diagnostic Signals (What you hear):

• The "Stagnation" Signal: "We are solving the exact same bugs we solved last year."
• The "Boredom" Signal: "I can do this job in my sleep; I'm checking out."

Impact on Core Model:

• Unmet Growth needs stall Level 3 Adaptation & Learning.
• The system becomes rigid and brittle to change.

4. Recognition & Belonging

Needs related to appreciation, inclusion, and social identity.

Collective Needs

• Culture of appreciation, not just criticism
• Inclusion mechanisms that ensure representation and voice
• Fair allocation of credit and visibility
• Shared rituals that build connection and identity

Individual Needs

• Feeling valued and seen as a person, not just a resource
• Belonging to the group without constant self-protection
• Recognition for contributions and effort
• Acceptance without needing to constantly prove worth or status

Diagnostic Signals (What you hear):

• The "Invisible Work" Signal: "Management loves the new feature, but they have no idea we stayed up all night to fix the platform."
• The "Outsider" Signal: "The 'Cool Kids' table makes all the decisions."

Impact on Core Model:

• Lack of Belonging destroys Level 2 Mutual Commitment.
• People hoard information (breaking Communication) to protect their status.

5. Autonomy & Coherence

Needs related to freedom, agency, and alignment.

Collective Needs

• Coherent decision-making across roles and teams
• Boundary clarity between functions and responsibilities
• Distributed authority that matches real responsibility
• Consistency of decisions with stated principles and strategy

Individual Needs

• Freedom to make informed decisions in one’s domain
• Sense of agency and ownership over outcomes
• Space to act without micromanagement
• Clarity about how personal choices affect the whole system

Diagnostic Signals (What you hear):

• The "Mother May I" Signal: "I have to ask permission to fix a typo."
• The "Fake Autonomy" Signal: "They told me I own this, but then they overruled my decision."

Impact on Core Model:

• Unmet Autonomy needs break Level 2 Autonomy & Agency.
• It creates a bottleneck at Level 3 Decision Alignment, as all choices flow upward.

Why Extended Needs Matter

Extended Needs explain variation in motivation, engagement, and cooperation quality that structural models alone cannot capture.

They highlight why teams with the same processes and structures can behave very differently, and why cooperation often degrades slowly rather than collapsing suddenly:

• from committed to compliant,
• from transparent to guarded,
• from adaptive to rigid,
• from “we” to isolated “me”.

Understanding Extended Needs helps practitioners:

• See the difference between structural alignment and human experience.
• Avoid over-focusing on tools or processes when motivation or meaning is the root issue.
• Detect early signals of disengagement, resentment, or quiet fragmentation.
• Choose the right level of intervention: individual, relational, collective, or structural.
• Recognize when political or psychological distortions, not just process gaps, are driving behavior.

Extended Needs make the human dimension of cooperation explicit without inflating the Core Model.
They prepare the ground for System Modes, where teams decide how to act on these insights over time — whether to design, stabilize, grow, resolve conflict, or reset the cooperation system.